The victim, identified by the Lipetsk news portal Gorod 48 as 51-year-old Olga Kukuzheva, was taken to the hospital for treatment but subsequently died of severe burns and a seared respiratory tract, investigators said.
The suspect, the victim's 26-year-old former son-in-law, broke into the apartment at around 4 a.m. Monday and set the woman on fire as she slept, investigators said. He has since been detained and is being investigated on charges of attempted murder, though Gorod 48 said the charges would likely be revised given the woman's death.
The regional Investigative Committee's report gave no indication of a motive.
Russia has seen several immolation attacks this year. In January, a pensioner in the northern republic of Karelia doused his female roommate and her mother with gasoline and burned them alive.
The suspect, who was not named in the police report, got into a drunken argument with the 34-year-old woman and her 53-year-old mother before the attack.
Also in January, a jealous boyfriend in the Sverdlovsk region set his apartment on fire, injuring his former lover, her daughter and her female friend.
The attacker, however, was the only one to perish in the attack, dying of smoke inhalation in a room that the flames did not reach, investigators said.
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